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Our Scientific Partnerships & Collaborations

At Human Technopole we are committed to improving people’s health and wellbeing through a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to life science research, including through partnerships and collaborations with other national and international research institutions. Since our early days of activity, we have been engaging with Universities, research hospitals and other scientific organisations to explore synergies and promote joint collaborative initiatives.

Our scientific partnerships and collaborations are based on shared scientific interests and common research questions, as well as on complementarity in research skills, methods and expertise.

For more information on our activity, you can get in touch with the Scientific Partnerships and Collaborations team at scientificpartnerships@fht.org

 

MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING

Human Technopole establishes collaborative relationships and supports long-term scientific cooperation with a variety of scientific organisations through Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) – general agreements for the development of joint research or training initiatives in areas of common interest. HT has signed MoUs with the following organisations:

RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS

Human Technopole collaborates with a variety of research partners for the development of specific projects. Such collaborations are formalised through Research Collaboration Agreements (RCAs). HT has signed RCAs for the following projects:

  • Multiomics analysis and population stratification to study COVID-19 epidemiology in the Vò municipality with Università di Padova, Department of Molecular Medicine
  • Powered genetic studies of medically relevant traits in the Moli-sani study with IRCCS Neuromed.
  • High throughput brain organoid longitudinal profiling from the Italian cohort of neurodevelopmental disorders with IRCCS Oasi Maria Santissima
  • Prospective study to investigate tumor biology and therapy resistance factors by liquid biopsy and patient derived organoids (PDO) in patients with gastrointestinal tract, bilio-pancreatic, neuroendocrine tumors and Merkel cell carcinomas with IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori
  • Identification of genetic determinants of the predisposition to develop respiratory failure in persons infected by SARS-CoV-2 (FOGS), with Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
  • Large-Scale profiling of the plasma proteome in diverse cohorts, with University of Cambridge (UK)
  • Comprehensive mapping regulatory elements and interactomes in human samples, with Riken (Japan)
  • Characterisation of RNA function in mammalian biology, with Riken (Japan)
  • Cancer computational genomics and evolution with bulk and single-cell sequencing, with Università degli Studi di Trieste
  • Phenotypic mapping of gene functions in immune cells, with Wellcome Sanger Institute (UK)
  • Identification of genetic and gene-environment resilience and risk factors for neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with Karlstad University (Sweden)
  • Using proteomics in systems genomics approaches to elucidate pathophysiological mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases with Eurac Research
  • Functional annotation of human non-coding RNAs with Fantom 6, Riken (Japan)
  • A multiomic single-cell study to identify and characterise quiescent treatment-resistant ancestral cells in IDH-wildtype glioblastoma with Azienda ULSS n.5 Polesana – Ospedale S. Maria della Misericordia – UOC Neurochirurgia
  • Development of methods for oligonucleotide-sequencing based detection of cancer biomarkers, with University of Turin
  • Observational prospective study  to dissect the immune profile in  COVID-19 patients with IRCCS Humanitas
  • Spatially resolved interactomics of gene expression in cancer, with Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
  • Longitudinal study of neurodevelopmental disorders through genome sequencing and brain organoids with IRCCS Besta
  • Role of genetic variation in Immune Effector Function with Policlinico di Milano
  • Using human stem cell models to study host-virus interactions in the brain with Erasmus Medical Center
  • Comprehensive CRISPR perturbations with multimodal readouts to unravel targets in immune cells with Wellcome Sanger Institute
  • Single-cell multimodal analysis of neonatal hematopoietic cells’ with Policlinico di Milano/Clinica Mangiagalli and San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy
  • The genetic landscape of systemic inflammation across health and disease with University College London
  • Joint development of methods for genome-wide mapping of DNA double-stranded breaks with IFOM and Humanitas
  • Dissecting the molecular mechanisms of glioblastoma response to regorafenib with CNR Istituto di Biochimica e Biologia Cellulare
  • Causes of breastfeeding and lactation traits with Norwegian Institute of Public Health
  • Spatial reorganization of the genome during cellular differentiation with European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
  • iTAGC: iTalian ArchaeoGenomiCs in the peninsula’s “heart” with University of Pavia
  • Protein Origami Nanostructures for High-Resolution cryo-CLEM Applications with National Institute of Chemistry, Kemijski Inštitut of Ljubljana in Slovenia
  • Understanding the role of glioblastoma stem cell morphology in tumour progression from cells to the clinics with ASST – Ovest Milanese – Ospedale di Legnano
  • The Genomes of Italy Study with University of Pavia
  • Telomere-to-telomere sequencing: the new era of Centromere and neocentromere eVolution (CenVolution) with the University of Bari Aldo Moro
  • Role of genetic variation in haematopoiesis and immune response with ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda
  • Epigenomic and genetic profiling in CD34+ hematopoietic cells of diabetic patients with IRCCS Centro Cardiologico Monzino S.p.A. Milano
  • Exploring Clonal Evolution leading to Recurrence in Prostate Cancer with The Institute of Cancer Research, London (UK)
  • Developing a single cell RNA sequencing readout of CROPseq-multi, with the Broad Institute (USA)
  • COVID-19 and mother and child health: short- and long-term consequences, with Regione Lombardia, Direzione Generale Welfare
  • The CoV-CVD Study with Regione Lombardia, Direzione Generale Welfare

PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH INITIATIVES

In addition to interacting with individual research partners, HT is keen on building links with European and international institutes and collaborative initiatives, by coordinating Italian efforts and participating in large-scale international collaborative research endeavours and consortia. The most significant international consortia that HT is already working with are:

  • The European LifeTime FET Flagship initiative aims to revolutionise healthcare by tracking and understanding human diseases at single-cell resolution to transform patient care and the sustainability of healthcare systems
  • The Human Cell Atlas represents a global effort combining expertise in biology, medicine, genomics, technology development and computation to build a comprehensive collection of cellular reference maps, characterising each of the thousands of cell types in the human body
  • The Cancer Dependency Map is a partnership between the Broad Institute (USA) and the Wellcome Sanger Institute (UK) that pools expertise, data and computational tools to systematically identify genetic and pharmacologic cancer dependencies and the biomarkers that predict them. Initial discussions with selected consortium partners have been very positive and are expected to result in HT joining the initiative, to dynamically characterise the genetic dependencies of glioblastoma
  • FANTOM is a consortium initially established at Riken to assign functional annotations to the full-length cDNAs that has since developed and expanded over time to encompass the fields of transcriptome analysis. The object of FANTOM is moving steadily up the layers in the system of life, progressing thus from an understanding of the “elements” – the transcripts – to an understanding of the “system” – the transcriptional regulatory network – in other words, the ‘system’ of an individual life form. The current FANTOM edition, which HT has joined, is dedicated to the functional analysis of non-coding RNA
  • The Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC) aims to create a more sophisticated and complete human reference genome with a graph-based, telomere-to-telomere representation of global genomic diversity. It will leverage innovations in technology, study design and global partnerships with the goal of constructing the highest-possible quality human pangenome reference. The goal is to improve data representation and streamline analyses to enable the routine assembly of complete diploid genomes.
  • The NeuroCOV project is investigating neurological and neuropsychiatric complications due to Covid-19 infection, with the aim of addressing involvement of the immune system and direct loss of neuronal function
  • The Artificial Intelligence for Image Data Analysis in the Life Sciences (AI4Life) consortium aims to create accessible, harmonized, and interoperable Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and methods to solve current microscopy image analysis problems
  • R2D2-Mental Health is a project that aims to identify risk and resilience factors associated with neurodevelopmental diversity, including Autism and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders
  • The IMAGINE project will develop the next generation of scale-crossing imaging technologies to enable an integrated investigation of structure and function of biological systems
  • iCARE4CVD is a public-private research collaboration to look for new strategies to personalize prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease